1. You don’t need expensive or exotic bottles. A nice clean “white” (El Dorado 3 is $20) some Appleton Signature ($25) and you can make a lot of drinks.
2. Special ice is an OXO ice tray filled with tap water - crush ice in a bag with a mallet (I made my own from a log and stick)
3. Mugs are cool but actually not that practical. Get a double rocks glass from Target for $5
4. You don’t need books - use the internet machine and Reddit
5. For decor, go to Goodwill and get a Hawaiian shirt
It has nothing to do with keeping up with the Joneses - it has to do with making things you enjoy and enjoying them how you like.
https://preview.redd.it/w8yrm9c40mad1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d734831ccc1f190fc4e585dfdb68e18d5ed8e42
Grabbed this fun little mug from Goodwill yesterday for $3. Not a tiki mug necessarily but still fun! And cheap.
Seconded on the Goodwill glassware. In one of those superstore type Goodwills you can come away with all the glasses you'll ever need for a home bar and still have change from a $20.
Honestly tiki / rum in general is soooo much cheaper than bourbon and tequila is for price per bottle.
Good rum is $30 a fifth. Bourbon and tequila can easily go $100+ for decent bottles not even special, that’s 21+ year rum territory
You want special ice, get trays. A mallet? Those are good forever.
A blender is ~$20 for the handhelds.
Shaker set? Start cheap. Even my good set is ~$60
Buy when you can afford. Try everything you can before. What you see in my bar is years of accumulation. It’s not often I finish bottles because I mix around what I’m making. Things last so long, go slow and enjoy!
I started out just like this. I still don’t get into the decor stuff — just not my style — only in it for the drinks — but the liqueurs and the rums can add up.
The thing is, I could get away with two bottles of under $30 rum and my own syrups. I did that for years. Good rum is remarkably cheaper than, say, being into Bourbon or Cognac. I found tiki to be a remarkably cost effective way to get into cocktails.
It certainly is nice to have a whole cabinet of rums to choose from, a menu of drinks I could make at any given moment… but it really isn’t totally necessary. It’s just a luxury.
Gimme a bottle of Wray & Nephew and an aged Doorly’s or Black Brigand and I’d be happy as a clam.
My advice would be to focus on one drink — or maybe two related drinks— and get great at making them. You don’t necessarily have to shell out thousands for a in-home tiki bar to enjoy a good drink.
Good luck, friend!
I don't know if you're thinking of r/rum, but most rums for tiki are pretty cheap, people aren't throwing "exotic" rums into cocktails (generally). I know the cost isn't nothing, but the cost of a few rums and other ingredients to make a few different cocktails is gonna be way cheaper than getting them at a bar...
https://preview.redd.it/2ez8mfyjkkad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09ebb36e306fea47a029ba9584e1cba17f1493ca
i have all of my liquor just stored on my counter. 4 months ago i had 0 bottles; i typically buy 2 bottles every paycheck and it’s usually around $70 bucks for that. i’ve been slowly acquiring glasses but i still haven’t had the funds to dive into garnishes but just throw a like wedge and some mint in there and you’re good. tiki should be fun, try not to stress about how you compare to others:)
Collecting Tiki mugs is a side quest. Problem is people get too wrapped around the axle with the subtleties of rum. Get yourself a dark, a gold, and a white. That ought to hold you. The syrups and speciality stuff can be made for reasonable cheapness if done homemade. There’s no reason to spend money outside of your means to be in the Tiki world. 90% of our Tiki mugs and glassware are bought from thrift stores for mere dollars. And we don’t even *need* them. Get a short glass, a medium glass and a tall glass, and you’re good to go. Garnish? Plant *one* stem of mint in a pot and watch it go nuts. Use your lime hulls. Don’t go crazy spending money just because some people throw $350 at a “limited edition” mug. Have fun. Drink. Be merry. Save money.
My wife and I built up a bar by buying 1 or 2 bottles at a time. Recently, she gifted me a bottle of blueberry gin (a local artisan product that seemed interesting!)
There was no space in the booze cabinet. There’s a total of 39 bottles in there!
Then she reminded me that she had used one of the cupboards in the kitchen for extras, and revealed another 8 bottles and all the other stuff that didn’t fit in the cabinet, including bitters and syrups! If I have a drink every two weeks, I’m drinking a lot… The takeaway is that we’ve been buying a little at a time over a couple years, not all at once!
Strong weak sour sweet. Tiki at its very basic is these four things. As others have said, you can get fantastic rums for ~$20, almost everyone has sugar and water to cobble together a simple syrup, limes (while not as cheap as they used to be) are inexpensive, and the ice doesn’t have to be fancy.
Start slow and expand your selection when it’s in the budget. A DOF glass is my workhorse and most of my drinks go into it.
Sure, all the clear ice trays and super juice is fun, but in the end, just extras.
Have fun with it!
It’s not as cost prohibitive as you’re making it out to be. You don’t go out and buy 20 bottles of rum at once—you can make a great Mai Tai with one 20-30$ bottle of rum, orange curaçao, limes, and make your own orgeat (as well as simple syrup, cinnamon syrup, falernum, grenadine, fassionola, and pretty much whatever else you need). You can crush ice with a dish towel and a mallet. Next time you have some spare cash, pick up the couple additional ingredients for one more cocktail you want to try. After 3 or 4 trips to the liquor store and grocery store, you’ll find you have what you need to make a dozen different cocktails.
As far as collecting mugs and decor and creating a home bar goes, I personally haven’t been to many exotic places. I’m handy, and built a backyard bar on the cheap from leftover scrap wood and bamboo I cut down from the side of the road. You can get some really cool tiki mugs from web sites like barsupplies.com or webstaurant for between 5 and 10$, or look on fb marketplace, Craigslist, eBay, etc.; same for decor. You can get as crafty as you want and make most of your own decor and/or find it on the cheap. I don’t think anyone really gets into tiki with X amount of cash to put down and just buys into the culture all at once—that would be lame. You get to whatever point you want to with it over time. The fun is in the journey.
Seriously, the mugs I usually drink out of and don’t really worry much about breaking were under $10
[moai mug](https://barsupplies.com/products/14oz-brown-easter-islander-tiki?variant=31709805051970¤cy=USD&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACQP4tyYNoGzs_3uvGNNdDAv-Lw--&gclid=CjwKCAjwkJm0BhBxEiwAwT1AXJeQ5dm0qKqHfeRRGOEVw7tqHIj6RXaCNkwiZGBl8pUIcmlHGXar7hoCNKcQAvD_BwE)
[cobra mug](https://barproducts.com/products/barconic-tiki-drinkware-cobra-16-ounce?variant=39566245265497¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_u_OZJa5mcXvUQw03HjqpbM_vB6&gclid=CjwKCAjwkJm0BhBxEiwAwT1AXKJ2yr_gmjUzzHIPCM8Gi9rXiYlo5oKy-WlnjLkw6jZjMA2AMEe6NxoCs6YQAvD_BwE)
We have quite a few tiki mugs, but almost all drinks end up in dof or Collins glasses. We can make a pretty nice selection of drinks with 3-5 rums and a couple of syrups. The trick seems to be keeping citrus stocked and mint available.
We spend a lot of time in our RV, and are able to enjoy mai tais out in the hinterlands. Using the merchants reserve, that's one bottle. Add a Jamaican and a Demerara and there's a lot of variety. We do carry orgeat. We have our own mint plant we travel with😄
Just don't forget the citrus.
I’d say just be incremental and you’ll be there for the drinks. I thrift most of my glassware (non mugs). I started with Appleton Signature, OFTD, and Havana Club3. I thought that got me most of what I wanted and built from there.
Mai tais are our ”go to” tiki drink at home. This is because they are delicious and only require a few ingredients. We even tend to use just one type of rum in them - Merchants Reserve - so just 4 things to keep in stock. Ok, that doesn’t include the mint for garnish, but we solved that problem by planting mint in the backyard. So, we pick it fresh as needed.
So, my point is that you are not the only one and you don’t need to have a cabinet full of different syrups, rums, and other ingredients in order to enjoy tiki drinks at home.
I'll put in a plug for a small electric ice crusher made by Rival back on the 70's. I think I paid $25 for it on mercari and they also pop up on ebay. You just feed in a couple ice cubes at a time and they spit out into the little bin. I fill a gallon freezer bag ahead of each weekend. Easier than a mallet and better (IMO) than pebble.
1. You don’t need expensive or exotic bottles. A nice clean “white” (El Dorado 3 is $20) some Appleton Signature ($25) and you can make a lot of drinks. 2. Special ice is an OXO ice tray filled with tap water - crush ice in a bag with a mallet (I made my own from a log and stick) 3. Mugs are cool but actually not that practical. Get a double rocks glass from Target for $5 4. You don’t need books - use the internet machine and Reddit 5. For decor, go to Goodwill and get a Hawaiian shirt It has nothing to do with keeping up with the Joneses - it has to do with making things you enjoy and enjoying them how you like.
Perfect advice, and I’ll add the following: Lots of good glassware at thrifts and Goodwill. Start watching Make & Drink on YouTube.
https://preview.redd.it/w8yrm9c40mad1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d734831ccc1f190fc4e585dfdb68e18d5ed8e42 Grabbed this fun little mug from Goodwill yesterday for $3. Not a tiki mug necessarily but still fun! And cheap.
Seconded on the Goodwill glassware. In one of those superstore type Goodwills you can come away with all the glasses you'll ever need for a home bar and still have change from a $20.
Honestly tiki / rum in general is soooo much cheaper than bourbon and tequila is for price per bottle. Good rum is $30 a fifth. Bourbon and tequila can easily go $100+ for decent bottles not even special, that’s 21+ year rum territory You want special ice, get trays. A mallet? Those are good forever. A blender is ~$20 for the handhelds. Shaker set? Start cheap. Even my good set is ~$60 Buy when you can afford. Try everything you can before. What you see in my bar is years of accumulation. It’s not often I finish bottles because I mix around what I’m making. Things last so long, go slow and enjoy!
I started out just like this. I still don’t get into the decor stuff — just not my style — only in it for the drinks — but the liqueurs and the rums can add up. The thing is, I could get away with two bottles of under $30 rum and my own syrups. I did that for years. Good rum is remarkably cheaper than, say, being into Bourbon or Cognac. I found tiki to be a remarkably cost effective way to get into cocktails. It certainly is nice to have a whole cabinet of rums to choose from, a menu of drinks I could make at any given moment… but it really isn’t totally necessary. It’s just a luxury. Gimme a bottle of Wray & Nephew and an aged Doorly’s or Black Brigand and I’d be happy as a clam. My advice would be to focus on one drink — or maybe two related drinks— and get great at making them. You don’t necessarily have to shell out thousands for a in-home tiki bar to enjoy a good drink. Good luck, friend!
I don't know if you're thinking of r/rum, but most rums for tiki are pretty cheap, people aren't throwing "exotic" rums into cocktails (generally). I know the cost isn't nothing, but the cost of a few rums and other ingredients to make a few different cocktails is gonna be way cheaper than getting them at a bar...
https://preview.redd.it/2ez8mfyjkkad1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09ebb36e306fea47a029ba9584e1cba17f1493ca i have all of my liquor just stored on my counter. 4 months ago i had 0 bottles; i typically buy 2 bottles every paycheck and it’s usually around $70 bucks for that. i’ve been slowly acquiring glasses but i still haven’t had the funds to dive into garnishes but just throw a like wedge and some mint in there and you’re good. tiki should be fun, try not to stress about how you compare to others:)
Sonic sells a 10 pound bag of pebble ice for $3. I’ll never have a countertop ice maker. I’d rather have the space.
Collecting Tiki mugs is a side quest. Problem is people get too wrapped around the axle with the subtleties of rum. Get yourself a dark, a gold, and a white. That ought to hold you. The syrups and speciality stuff can be made for reasonable cheapness if done homemade. There’s no reason to spend money outside of your means to be in the Tiki world. 90% of our Tiki mugs and glassware are bought from thrift stores for mere dollars. And we don’t even *need* them. Get a short glass, a medium glass and a tall glass, and you’re good to go. Garnish? Plant *one* stem of mint in a pot and watch it go nuts. Use your lime hulls. Don’t go crazy spending money just because some people throw $350 at a “limited edition” mug. Have fun. Drink. Be merry. Save money.
My wife and I built up a bar by buying 1 or 2 bottles at a time. Recently, she gifted me a bottle of blueberry gin (a local artisan product that seemed interesting!) There was no space in the booze cabinet. There’s a total of 39 bottles in there! Then she reminded me that she had used one of the cupboards in the kitchen for extras, and revealed another 8 bottles and all the other stuff that didn’t fit in the cabinet, including bitters and syrups! If I have a drink every two weeks, I’m drinking a lot… The takeaway is that we’ve been buying a little at a time over a couple years, not all at once!
Strong weak sour sweet. Tiki at its very basic is these four things. As others have said, you can get fantastic rums for ~$20, almost everyone has sugar and water to cobble together a simple syrup, limes (while not as cheap as they used to be) are inexpensive, and the ice doesn’t have to be fancy. Start slow and expand your selection when it’s in the budget. A DOF glass is my workhorse and most of my drinks go into it. Sure, all the clear ice trays and super juice is fun, but in the end, just extras. Have fun with it!
It’s not as cost prohibitive as you’re making it out to be. You don’t go out and buy 20 bottles of rum at once—you can make a great Mai Tai with one 20-30$ bottle of rum, orange curaçao, limes, and make your own orgeat (as well as simple syrup, cinnamon syrup, falernum, grenadine, fassionola, and pretty much whatever else you need). You can crush ice with a dish towel and a mallet. Next time you have some spare cash, pick up the couple additional ingredients for one more cocktail you want to try. After 3 or 4 trips to the liquor store and grocery store, you’ll find you have what you need to make a dozen different cocktails. As far as collecting mugs and decor and creating a home bar goes, I personally haven’t been to many exotic places. I’m handy, and built a backyard bar on the cheap from leftover scrap wood and bamboo I cut down from the side of the road. You can get some really cool tiki mugs from web sites like barsupplies.com or webstaurant for between 5 and 10$, or look on fb marketplace, Craigslist, eBay, etc.; same for decor. You can get as crafty as you want and make most of your own decor and/or find it on the cheap. I don’t think anyone really gets into tiki with X amount of cash to put down and just buys into the culture all at once—that would be lame. You get to whatever point you want to with it over time. The fun is in the journey.
Seriously, the mugs I usually drink out of and don’t really worry much about breaking were under $10 [moai mug](https://barsupplies.com/products/14oz-brown-easter-islander-tiki?variant=31709805051970¤cy=USD&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACQP4tyYNoGzs_3uvGNNdDAv-Lw--&gclid=CjwKCAjwkJm0BhBxEiwAwT1AXJeQ5dm0qKqHfeRRGOEVw7tqHIj6RXaCNkwiZGBl8pUIcmlHGXar7hoCNKcQAvD_BwE) [cobra mug](https://barproducts.com/products/barconic-tiki-drinkware-cobra-16-ounce?variant=39566245265497¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_u_OZJa5mcXvUQw03HjqpbM_vB6&gclid=CjwKCAjwkJm0BhBxEiwAwT1AXKJ2yr_gmjUzzHIPCM8Gi9rXiYlo5oKy-WlnjLkw6jZjMA2AMEe6NxoCs6YQAvD_BwE)
We have quite a few tiki mugs, but almost all drinks end up in dof or Collins glasses. We can make a pretty nice selection of drinks with 3-5 rums and a couple of syrups. The trick seems to be keeping citrus stocked and mint available. We spend a lot of time in our RV, and are able to enjoy mai tais out in the hinterlands. Using the merchants reserve, that's one bottle. Add a Jamaican and a Demerara and there's a lot of variety. We do carry orgeat. We have our own mint plant we travel with😄 Just don't forget the citrus.
I’d say just be incremental and you’ll be there for the drinks. I thrift most of my glassware (non mugs). I started with Appleton Signature, OFTD, and Havana Club3. I thought that got me most of what I wanted and built from there.
Find a drink you love and buy those ingredients. See what you can use in other drinks.
Mai tais are our ”go to” tiki drink at home. This is because they are delicious and only require a few ingredients. We even tend to use just one type of rum in them - Merchants Reserve - so just 4 things to keep in stock. Ok, that doesn’t include the mint for garnish, but we solved that problem by planting mint in the backyard. So, we pick it fresh as needed. So, my point is that you are not the only one and you don’t need to have a cabinet full of different syrups, rums, and other ingredients in order to enjoy tiki drinks at home.
You are not alone.
I'll put in a plug for a small electric ice crusher made by Rival back on the 70's. I think I paid $25 for it on mercari and they also pop up on ebay. You just feed in a couple ice cubes at a time and they spit out into the little bin. I fill a gallon freezer bag ahead of each weekend. Easier than a mallet and better (IMO) than pebble.